She was the wife of a brilliant painter. She often threatened him with death, and finally he locked her up in an insane asylum.

More stories of extraordinary women on the website Kornelia Teodora née Giebułtowska Matejkowa was born on March 31, 1846 in Kraków, and died on August 25, 1896 in the same city. In a sense, however, she became immortal. Thanks to her famous husband – the brilliant painter Jan Matejko, today she looks at us from his paintings as Bona Sforza and Barbara Radziwiłłówna. The painter, initially head over heels in love with Teodor, gave her face to the Polish queens.

The family was against this marriage

Cupid’s arrow hit Jan Matejko in the summer of 1863. Although he had known Teodora since childhood, it was then that he fell in love with her. He had no idea that this powerful woman with expressive and severe facial features would drive him to his grave – according to some of the artist’s biographers, who shared the opinion of Jan’s family. Teodora became his wife on September 21, 1864, and everything indicates that at least the first years after the wedding were spent by the Matejs in happiness and peace. “You miss me – and so do I, you are in vain in the world – and so do I, when I don’t have you with me, my dear Jaś (…) I kiss you, my dear, on your face and lips, on your crooked nose and my dear, my dear “hubby. Your unchanging Dora who loves you,” wrote Teodora to Matejka when she had to leave to improve her health. Soon, arguments began to break out between the spouses, which over the years turned into real fights, during which Jan and Teodora threatened each other with death. However, they could not live without each other, and the painter needed her to work – she posed for his paintings, playing the roles of Bona Sforza and Barbara Radziwiłłówna. Teodora had more and more frequent attacks of aggression and jealousy, Krakow’s high society gossiped about Teodora’s instability, and mentions of family quarrels even appeared in local newspapers. In 1872, Matejko painted “Drowned in the Bosphorus”, in which Hassan drowns his unfaithful wife in a river. It is easy to notice that the condemned woman has Teodora’s facial features, and the husband who took her life has Jan’s facial features.

Life with Teodora became unbearable

Supposedly, Teodora’s first symptoms of madness appeared in 1882, but some believe it was much earlier. The woman was convinced that her husband had thousands of mistresses, she also stated that “she hates her children because they are not her own children, that she will kill them and then kill her husband.” Matejko and the children left for the countryside, and Teodora was finally admitted to a hospital for the mentally ill. Her husband visited her in the facility, and she did everything she could to get out of there. She finally achieved her goal in the fall of 1883. She returned to her family, but was incapacitated and treated by a famous psychiatrist, Dr. Karol Żuławski.

However, Teodora is still unbearable, she suffers from severe headaches and is addicted to morphine. Not only for my husband and children, but also for the service. Despite salary increases, the service is rapidly declining and no one wants to work for the Matejkos. Jan and Teodora’s fight lasted until the painter’s death on November 1, 1893 due to internal bleeding. It was said that his wife pushed him into the grave. Teodora soon joined her husband, dying three years after him.